Expanding the Role: Adding Sales Support

This is Part 15 of a 16-part series on building your AI VP of Marketing with Claude Cowork. Previous: Running on Autopilot | Next: The Full Executive

Rules    → Define voice, standards, constraints
Skills   → Automate single repeatable tasks  
Agents   → Handle multi-step autonomous work
Pipeline → Wire tools into connected workflows
Measure  → Track what works
Automate → Schedule recurring work

The Pattern You Have Learned

Over fourteen articles, you built a marketing operation from scratch: briefing document, rules, skills, agents, pipeline, measurement, automation. Six layers, each one building on the last.

That pattern has nothing to do with marketing. It is a system design pattern. Rules define behavior. Skills automate single tasks. Agents chain decisions across multiple steps. Pipeline connects tools end-to-end. Measurement tracks results. Automation schedules the work. It works for any function where you need consistent, quality-controlled output -- sales, customer support, operations, hiring, finance.

This article proves that by walking through sales. You will add sales-specific rules, build two new skills, and define the boundary where marketing work ends and sales work begins. The process will feel familiar because you have done it before. That is the point. You are not learning something new. You are applying what you already know to a different domain.

Think of this as a promotion, not a side project. Your VP is not moonlighting in sales. The marketing system you built is strong enough to support adjacent functions, and sales is the most natural extension. Marketing generates interest. Sales converts interest into revenue. They share an audience, a voice, and a set of content assets. Connecting them is not a stretch -- it is the obvious next step.

Sales-Specific Rules

Your existing rules in .claude/rules/ govern marketing output. They define how your VP sounds in blog posts, emails, and social media. Sales content shares the same brand identity, but the register shifts. Marketing educates. Sales converts. The difference is not subtle, and your VP needs rules that capture it.

Marketing voice says: "Freelancers who categorize transactions weekly spend 20 minutes on tax prep instead of 8 hours." That is informative. It builds awareness.

Sales voice says: "Your tax season last year took 8 hours. With Tideway, next quarter's prep takes 20 minutes. Here is how to start." That is direct. It addresses a specific person, names the outcome, and pushes toward a decision.

Both voices belong to the same brand. But they serve different moments in the buyer's journey. Your rules need to encode that difference.

Create .claude/rules/sales-voice.md:

# Sales Voice

## Relationship to Brand Voice
Sales voice follows all brand voice rules (brand-voice.md) with the
adjustments below. Brand voice is the foundation. Sales voice is a
register within it -- more direct, more outcome-focused, more
urgency-aware.

## Tone Adjustments
- Lead with the prospect's situation, not the product. "You are
  spending 8 hours on tax prep" before "Tideway reduces that to 20
  minutes."
- Use second person ("you") more aggressively than marketing. Sales
  content speaks to one person, not an audience.
- Name specific outcomes with numbers. "Save 7 hours per quarter"
  beats "save time."
- Create urgency through deadlines and consequences, not hype. "Q2
  closes in six weeks -- enough time to get your books current" is
  urgency. "Act now before it is too late" is hype.

## Vocabulary

### Words We Use in Sales
- proposal, ROI, implementation timeline, decision criteria
- investment (when discussing price), onboarding, pilot, trial
- "based on what you told us" (personalizing to prospect context)

### Words We Avoid in Sales
- "circle back", "touch base", "reach out" (vague action words)
- "no-brainer" (dismisses the prospect's decision-making process)
- "honestly" or "frankly" (implies previous dishonesty)
- "cheap" or "affordable" (undermines perceived value)
- "best-in-class", "market-leading" (empty claims)

## Voice in Action

**Marketing register:** "Small businesses that automate their
bookkeeping save an average of 12 hours per month on financial
admin."

**Sales register:** "You mentioned spending two days a month on
invoices and reconciliation. Tideway clients with similar volume
cut that to 3 hours. Here is what the first month looks like."

**Marketing register:** "Our quarterly review process helps clients
catch categorization errors before tax season."

**Sales register:** "Your current process missed $4,200 in
deductible expenses last year. The quarterly review catches those.
Want to see how it works on your actual books?"

Now create .claude/rules/sales-process.md for workflow rules:

# Sales Process Rules

## Qualification First
Never produce sales collateral for an unqualified lead. Before
generating a proposal or one-pager, confirm that basic qualification
information exists: who the prospect is, what problem they have,
and what prompted them to engage.

## Proposal Structure
Every proposal follows this order:
1. Prospect's situation (what they told us about their problem)
2. Recommended solution (specific to their situation, not generic)
3. Expected outcomes (with numbers tied to their inputs)
4. Investment and timeline
5. Next step (one specific action)

## Follow-Up Cadence
- Initial response: same business day
- Proposal follow-up: 3 business days after sending
- No-response follow-up: 7 days, then 14 days, then close
- Every follow-up adds value (new information, relevant content)
  -- never send "just checking in"

## Content Reuse
Sales collateral should reference and link to published marketing
content where relevant. Blog posts, case studies, and guides are
supporting evidence in a sales conversation, not separate assets.

Generate both files with a single prompt in Cowork:

Review my existing rules in .claude/rules/ and my CLAUDE.md, then
create two new rule files:

1. .claude/rules/sales-voice.md -- Sales-specific voice rules that
   build on our brand voice. Include tone adjustments for sales
   conversations, sales-specific vocabulary (use and avoid lists),
   and Voice in Action examples showing the difference between our
   marketing and sales registers. Use our actual products and
   audience from CLAUDE.md for the examples.

2. .claude/rules/sales-process.md -- Workflow rules for sales
   content: qualification requirements before producing collateral,
   proposal structure, follow-up cadence, and rules for reusing
   marketing content in sales conversations.

Both files should complement, not contradict, the existing brand
voice and process rules.

Collateral from Marketing Assets

Your marketing pipeline already produces content -- blog posts, email sequences, social posts, campaign plans. Sales collateral takes that same material and reshapes it for a buyer who already knows they have a problem and is evaluating solutions. The information is not new. The framing is.

A blog post titled "Why Freelancers Should Automate Their Bookkeeping" educates a broad audience. A one-pager titled "How Tideway Saves Freelance Designers 12 Hours a Month" targets a specific prospect meeting. Same underlying data. Different job.

Build a sales collateral skill using /skill-creator:

/skill-creator

When Cowork asks what you want to build, paste:

Build a Sales Collateral Generator skill that takes a marketing
asset (blog post, campaign content, or case study) and produces
sales-ready collateral.

The skill should:

1. Accept one marketing asset as input (pasted text or a file
   reference from the project).

2. Extract the core claims, data points, and evidence from the
   marketing content.

3. Produce ONE of the following outputs (the user specifies which):
   - One-pager: a single-page summary with prospect-facing
     headline, 3 key benefits with supporting data, one testimonial
     or case reference, and a specific CTA
   - Proposal section: a 300-500 word section that positions the
     marketing content's argument within a sales proposal, leading
     with the prospect's problem and ending with our solution
   - Pitch talking points: 5-7 bullet points a salesperson (or the
     business owner) can use in a live conversation, each with a
     stat or evidence point and a follow-up question to ask the
     prospect

4. Apply sales voice rules from .claude/rules/sales-voice.md.

5. Flag any claims from the marketing content that need prospect-
   specific customization. For example, if the blog says "clients
   save 12 hours per month," the collateral should note: "Adjust
   this number based on the prospect's reported time spent."

6. Include a "Customize Before Sending" section that lists 2-3
   fields the user should personalize for each prospect.

Test it with a real asset. Take the Tideway Bookkeeping blog post about tax season prep (the one you used in Article 8) and generate a one-pager:

Run the Sales Collateral Generator on the tax season prep blog post.
Output format: one-pager. The prospect is a freelance web developer
earning $180K who currently does their own books in a spreadsheet.

The output should look something like a document with a prospect-facing headline ("Stop Losing Weekends to Tax Prep"), three benefit blocks with specific numbers, a reference to the 20-minute versus 8-hour comparison from the blog post, and a CTA tailored to the prospect's situation ("Start a free trial and import your last three months of transactions -- see how Tideway categorizes them automatically").

The "Customize Before Sending" section should flag the numbers that need adjusting. The blog post's "12 hours per month" average might not match this prospect's situation. The skill flags it so you replace the generic stat with the prospect's actual reported number before the collateral goes out.

Lead Qualification Skill

Marketing generates leads. But a lead is just a name until you know whether they can buy, want to buy, and are ready to buy. Qualification separates prospects worth your time from contacts who are not ready yet.

The BANT framework gives you four criteria: Budget (can they pay?), Authority (can they decide?), Need (do they have the problem you solve?), Timeline (are they solving it now or "someday"?). Your CLAUDE.md already describes your ideal customer. This skill applies that profile to actual lead information and produces a structured assessment.

Build the skill:

/skill-creator

When Cowork asks what you want to build:

Build a Lead Qualifier skill that evaluates inbound leads using
BANT criteria and the ideal customer profile from CLAUDE.md.

The skill should:

1. Accept lead information as input. This could be:
   - A form submission (name, email, company, message)
   - A pasted email or conversation summary
   - Notes from a phone call or meeting

2. Evaluate the lead against four criteria:
   - Budget: Is there evidence they can afford our services?
     Score 1-3 (1 = no signal, 2 = some signal, 3 = confirmed).
   - Authority: Is this person a decision-maker or an influencer?
     Score 1-3.
   - Need: Does their stated problem match what we solve?
     Score 1-3.
   - Timeline: Are they looking to act now, this quarter, or
     someday? Score 1-3.

3. Produce a total score (4-12) with a classification:
   - 10-12: Hot -- contact within 24 hours
   - 7-9: Warm -- follow up within 3 days with relevant content
   - 4-6: Cool -- add to nurture sequence, do not pursue actively

4. For each criterion, explain the score in one sentence citing
   specific evidence from the lead information. "Budget: 2 --
   they mentioned being a solo freelancer with no current
   bookkeeping spend, suggesting a smaller budget but no
   disqualifying signal."

5. Recommend a specific next action based on the classification.
   Not "follow up" -- a concrete action: "Send the tax prep
   one-pager and ask about their current quarterly process."

6. Flag missing information. If the lead data does not address one
   of the four criteria, say so and suggest a question to ask that
   would fill the gap.

Test it with sample lead data:

Run the Lead Qualifier on this inbound form submission:

Name: Sarah Chen
Email: sarah@chendesigns.com
Company: Chen Designs (solo freelance graphic designer)
Message: "I found your blog post about tax prep for freelancers.
I've been doing my own books in Google Sheets for three years and
last April was a nightmare -- spent an entire weekend just finding
receipts. Is Tideway right for someone who only has about 30
transactions a month?"

The output should score each BANT criterion with evidence. Need scores high -- Sarah has the exact problem Tideway solves. Timeline has a signal -- she is asking proactively, months before tax season. Budget needs more information -- solo freelancer, no mention of price concerns. Authority is clear -- solo business, she decides.

The recommended action should be specific: "Send the freelancer one-pager with the 20-minute tax prep comparison. Ask about her monthly revenue range to assess budget fit. Emphasize that starting now means next April is a 20-minute task, not a lost weekend."

This is the pattern in miniature. Rules define the qualification criteria (your ideal customer profile in CLAUDE.md, your sales process rules). The skill applies those criteria consistently to every lead. You get the same structured evaluation whether you are qualifying one lead at 8 AM or twenty at midnight. The judgment is codified, not improvised.

The Handoff

You now have marketing tools that generate leads and sales tools that qualify and convert them. The gap between those two systems is the handoff -- the moment a lead moves from "someone who read our blog post" to "someone a salesperson should call."

Get this wrong and leads fall through. Marketing produces interest that nobody follows up on. Sales chases contacts who are not ready. Both sides blame the other.

The handoff is not a tool. It is a set of rules that define when a lead crosses the line and what information travels with them.

Create .claude/rules/handoff-rules.md:

# Marketing-to-Sales Handoff Rules

## When a Lead Qualifies for Handoff
A lead moves from marketing to sales when ANY of these triggers
occur:
- Lead Qualifier score of 7 or higher (Warm or Hot)
- Prospect directly requests pricing, a demo, or a proposal
- Prospect engages with 3+ pieces of content within 7 days
  (indicates active evaluation)

## Information That Travels with the Lead
Every handoff includes:
1. Lead Qualifier output (BANT scores with evidence)
2. Content engagement history: which blog posts, emails, or
   pages they interacted with
3. Original source: how they found us (search, referral, social,
   direct)
4. Suggested first action from the Lead Qualifier
5. Any direct quotes from their inquiry (exact words matter more
   than summaries)

## What Sales Must NOT Do
- Contradict published marketing messaging. If the blog says
  "onboarding takes 15 minutes," the sales conversation cannot
  say "onboarding takes 5 minutes" to close faster.
- Ignore brand voice entirely. Sales register is more direct, but
  the brand identity stays consistent. Review sales-voice.md.
- Make claims that marketing has not published. New stats,
  features, or comparisons must go through the content pipeline
  first.

## What Marketing Must NOT Do
- Hand off unqualified leads to fill a quota. A Lead Qualifier
  score of 4 is not "close to 7." It is a 4. Nurture it.
- Stop nurturing a lead after handoff. Continue the email
  sequence. Sales conversations and marketing nurture run in
  parallel until the prospect either converts or disengages.

## Feedback Loop
After each closed deal (won or lost), record:
- Which marketing content the prospect engaged with before handoff
- Which sales collateral was used in the conversation
- What the prospect cited as their reason for buying (or not)
This data feeds back into the measurement framework (Article 13)
to improve both systems.

This file does not create a new tool. It creates a boundary. Your marketing pipeline and your sales skills operate on either side of it, and the handoff rules ensure nothing gets lost in between.

What is Next

You just did something more important than adding sales support. You applied the pattern to a function you had not built for before -- and it worked. That is the most valuable skill in this series: looking at any repeatable business function and saying "I know how to systematize this."

In Article 16, you step back and look at the complete system. You will document the architecture, review every component, and solidify the extension pattern as a repeatable framework -- not because it adds new tools, but because it turns everything you built into something you can explain, maintain, and grow.

This is Part 15 of 16 in the Your AI VP of Marketing series. Previous: Running on Autopilot | Next: The Full Executive